The Creative Mentor Part 1: Temp Agencies // Portfolio Reviews // Why do you do this?
Part 1 of the podcast I talk a lot about the basics:
Why do you want a creative job?
Agency vs inhouse vs freelance
Portfolios
What Does Success Mean To You.
Most creatives working, didn’t even hesitate to ask why, we just jumped in. It’s been interesting during the pandemic to navigate this ‘ask yourself’ touchpoint because frankly, I never did. As i’ve navigated through design and the creative industry I have found many other creatives could have done themselves a favor and answered the following for themselves. It would have helped them pick a direction to start in for their career:
What defines success in a career for you?
What do your enjoy about what you make?
Do you enjoy working for yourself, or others? Why?
Finding Work:
There are actually a ton of ways to find creative work where you don’t have to bust your own ass to uncover it. A lot of creatives use Temp Agencies. These agencies specialize in placing creatives on professional freelance gigs, temporary or permanent hired positions and they are the back door to getting into major brand’s in-house teams. They do have some pros and cons you should be aware of though.
Temp Agency
Pros:
they can be a sound board for setting up your portfolio/resume to be successful
negotiate your pay for you
typically can manage your taxes for you
place you with desirable brands
Cons:
take a % of your contract wage [which you two agree upon before accepting work]
can only find one contract gig at a time
communication may be slow when dealing with bids for gigs.
Doing everything yourself is always an option. It can be a lot to manage but, you’ll get the hang of it. I just want you to know there are options where you don’t always have to be hunting for work alone, and you can set up your linked in page to do a lot of work for temp agencies or recruiters to find you and do all this legwork for you. More on that later.
Here are some temp agencies that are standard - and a lot of companies use to find us":
Creative Circle, The Creative Group, Aquent, Cella, SmartDept, Buzz Co., Vitamin T, Artisan Talent, Upwork [Writers].
Portfolio Review
This is the big one, we all dread this because no one is clear on what should be in your portfolio. It’s actually really simple. Context to your project. Projects for work you want, and marketable stand out work. Always have professional mock ups for your work, and always ALWAYS have it on a site. You only have about 3-5 minutes to grab the attention of the hiring manager or creative director to keep looking and sort you into a portfolio based on your work. They probably haven’t even read your resume yet. Give them a good experience!
Checklist:
Available digitally It
does not need an access code[unless otherwise stated in industry]
4-8 pieces present
Context is given to work shown
Do you have statistics you can share?
You are only showing work you want to get?
You credit others if showing group work?
Consider how you design your website if you have the skill to, it’s another way to showcase your ability?
Are projects easily accessible to a viewer?
Is your site easily navigated to a viewer?
Keep up with your portfolio over time
Free portfolio hosting sites:
Behance, Dribbble, Free Wix, Free Squarespace